An employment system is any electronic system which facilitates those looking for a position (i.e., employment seekers, or job seekers) in finding a position and/or which facilitates those seeking to fill a position (i.e., employee seekers, or employers) in finding someone to fill the position. Typical employment systems enable employers to post available positions, and further enable job seekers to search available positions for positions that meet some search criteria. Some employment systems enable job seekers to post a resume, and further enable employers to search for resumes that contain certain keywords. However, traditional employment systems are inefficient for many reasons.
Employers have difficulty finding desirable candidates for positions by searching resumes on an employment site because information is not necessarily presented in a uniform manner for each resume. Typically, an employer enters one or more keywords and the database of job seeker resumes are searched to determine which resumes contain the keywords. Similarly, job seekers enter keywords upon which the database of available jobs are searched. Thus, if an ideal job seeker leaves pertinent information (e.g., language experience, a certification, security clearance level, etc.) out of a resume or even puts the information into the resume without using the keywords searched upon (e.g., using synonyms or containing a typo), the employer may never find the ideal job seeker's resume. Boolean searches (searches using keywords and/or strings that can be resolved to truth values in addition to Boolean operators such as AND, OR and NOT) may provide improved search results, but still suffers from the same problem. Further, a keyword and/or Boolean search may generate many false-positive results because the keyword is present in a resume but not in the correct context. Such false-positive results waste the potential employer's time.
Further, if a potential employer finds a resume that appears ideal, the first indication the employer may receive that information in the resume is inaccurate is when the employer contacts or interviews the job seeker, or even after the job seeker is hired. By the time the potential employer discovers the inaccuracy, considerable time and effort has been wasted.
In employment systems in which potential employers post available positions, potential employers are often inundated with resumes from unqualified job seekers. Some job seekers submit their resume to any position they find desirable, regardless of whether they meet any specified required qualifications on the hope that they will either be the most qualified applicant or that they will be qualified enough to get an interview and perhaps gain employment as a result.
Because unqualified job seekers submit their resumes, potential employers must sift through the submitted resumes to find the qualified applicants, which is an inefficient use of their time. Further, if the ratio of resumes from qualified applications to resumes from unqualified applicants becomes small, the potential employer may disregard all resumes from the employment system and discontinue further use of the employment system.
Another inefficiency of many employment systems is that they do not offer guidance to both job seekers and potential employers on improving their use of the employment system. As a result, an employer may be unaware that a much broader pool of qualified job seekers may be available if some conditions of the position were altered. Similarly, a job seeker may be unaware that a broader pool of positions may be available if they alter the conditions of their job search.